Sunset to Sunrise (Alexa O'Brien, Huntress #7.5)

I turned to leave, feeling like I’d come so close to finding someone who could help only to have it yanked away. A tease.

“Can I ask your name?” He called after me.

“Kale Sinclair,” I said with a shrug. I had nothing to hide.

“I don’t need to tell you there are dark forces at work in this city, Mr. Sinclair. What I can tell you, though, is that we all must choose a side and stand ready to fight.”

As I looked back at him then, my self-deprecating chuckle echoed around us. “I’m a vampire, Father. I don’t think I get to choose a side.”

“Of course you do. You came into this world a man and you will one day leave it as one.” His voice followed me out. “By not choosing, you have already chosen. Don’t let it be so.”

It took everything in me to muster a poker face and keep it firmly in place. I was certain Brook would see right through me when I told him I had found nothing. He shrugged, caring little, more than ready to be done with this treasure hunt for one night.

“If I were Shya, I wouldn’t be looking in the most obvious places,” Brook mused, crushing a cigarette on the edge of the church lawn with his heel.

“Neither would I.” It had already occurred to me that this was nothing but a wild goose chase, a way to keep one or both of us busy and out of Shya’s way, for whatever reason. Or perhaps we were simply a distraction for someone else. Either way, I kept my theories to myself.

My phone rang, a steady vibration in my pocket. I knew when I saw Justin’s number that this was a call I didn’t want to receive.

“Kale, buddy, we’ve got a problem. There’s a group of vamps in here trashing the place. It’s getting hard to handle with so many humans present. There’s already been a casualty.” Justin was almost drowned out by background noise. It sounded out of control.

“That stupid bitch,” I muttered to myself. Rebecca had to be behind this. She must have been more attached to Phillip than she let on. “Do what you can. I’ll be right there.”

I was expecting the worst. Brook vanished after promising to check in with Shya, leaving me free to deal with whatever was happening at The Wicked Kiss. That place had been off the rails since Alexa went out of town.

After spending most of the night with a demon hunting down an item I hoped would never be found, I wasn’t in the mood to see what the last of Phillip’s rebellion were doing to the club I shared with Alexa. She’d been so sure something like this would happen on my watch. The last thing I wanted was to prove her right.

Human patrons were pouring out the front door when I pulled into the nightclub parking lot. A loud bang accompanied their hasty exit.

The scent of gunpowder greeted me as I passed through the lobby. I stopped short in the entryway, a string of my favorite obscenities on my lips.

The Wicked Kiss had seen its share of damage. I wasn’t sure it had ever been this bad though. This was a three day clean up at least. Furniture had been reduced to rubble. Tables, chairs, even one of the couches behind the bar, all of them smashed into several pieces. The couch might have even been set aflame from the looks of the remains. The air was smoky.

I didn’t have a lot of time to take in the rest. Justin and his small but usually effective security team had managed to subdue three vampires. As suspected, Rebecca was among them, wearing a haughty smile.

“Let her go,” I said to Justin who had pinned her arms behind her back.

He released her with a shrug. She stood there, fearless and arrogant. I barely resisted the urge to smack her.

“I guess you changed your mind about that whole no ill intent thing.” My body hummed with power. If she tried to run, she wouldn’t make it out the door.

“It appears to be that way, doesn’t it?” She exchanged a smug look with her companions, neither of which seemed to share her confidence. “The least I could do for Phillip after what you did to him was refuse to be silenced. He was right. You’re part of the problem.”

Exchanging barbs with Rebecca was beneath me. So instead I backhanded her. She flew across the room, landing in a tangle of limbs. It wasn’t enough to keep her down though. She rushed me with a strangled cry, hurling her full weight against me. I was ready for it. I leaned into it, using her momentum to flip her across my back where she hit the floor hard beside me.

Placing a boot on her chest, I laughed. “You are a prime example of what happens when vampires have too much time on their hands.”

“Oh that’s rich coming from the poster boy for vampires gone insane,” she snapped. “Your head is so far up that werewolf’s ass, you can’t see the light. You can’t be trusted, Kale.”

“I’m a vampire, bitch. None of us can be trusted.” With an anger-fueled shout, I reached down and tore Rebecca’s head from her body. It took great effort, but the end result was satisfying.